As you know here at games.on.net we run a buttload of servers for many and varied games, and now we’re proud to announce that we’ve just deployed our first lot of ArmA 3 servers.

These are still development servers as the game is only in alpha, so please be aware it might not be fully stable or properly featured yet.

So! Help us test them by connecting and playing on them today — you should see them in your server browser. You’ll need to make sure you’re running the DEV build of the ArmA 3 alpha — details on how to do that can be found here.

Any questions or comments, post them in this thread!

Bohemia Interactive have released a 380 MB patch for ArmA 3‘s ongoing alpha which brings new fog technology, adjustable sidearm stances and other fixes, as well as solving a heap of bugs and crashes.

As always, you can jump straight into the alpha by buying the game on Steam for $33, or begging one of your friends who has already purchased it to give you one of their Alpha Lite keys.

Check out the full list of changes below:

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Are you interested in trying out ArmA 3? It does sound like a lot of fun, doesn’t it. Maybe you even just want to see if your rig can handle it? Well, you’re in luck! Thanks to Bohemia we’ve got a bunch of keys to give away today, following on from our giveaway earlier this week.

To grab a key, all you have to do is….

Update: All the keys are now gone! We’ll have more soon, so please keep an eye on GON. Are you interested in trying out ArmA 3? It does sound like a lot of fun, doesn’t it. Maybe you even just want to see if your rig can handle it? Well, you’re in luck! Thanks to [...]

ArmA III‘s alpha is here, and Jamie Dalzell is on hand to watch the sun rise each day over the 20 square kilometres of Stratis island. He’s been flying, swimming, shooting, and running for his life — and he brings us back this report.

We enjoy our ArmA here at games.on.net, and so, apparently, does Andrew Gluck, also known as Dslyecxi from the ShackTactical community. Bohemia have tasked Andrew to put together some Community Videos explaining the basics of their game and in doing so, Andrew took the chance to rag on other first-person military shooters (which shall remain nameless). If you’ve no idea what ArmA is about, or even if you’re a veteran who just wants to hear a reassuring list of reasons why you made the right choice, take a look below.

If you haven’t pre-purchased ArmA 3 on Steam then you won’t be in the alpha just yet, which means you won’t be able to experience what many ArmA 2 veterans are calling “wow, holy crap” and “jeez look at these animations”. Bohemia Interactive are celebrating in style with this official sneak peek video showing off the game’s impressive new engine — check it out below.

All the details on the ArmA 3 alpha and how you can get in even if you don’t buy it can be found here.

Source: Press Release

Bohemia have revealed that a private alpha for their upcoming ArmA III will be launching very soon on Tuesday, March 5. The alpha will continue right up until game launch, and is expected to regularly updated with the latest builds of the game for you to enjoy and provide feedback on.

The Alpha will feature four showcase missions (Infantry, Vehicles, SCUBA and Helicopter), as well as limited subset of weapons and vehicles, two multiplayer scenarios, and even modding support through the scenario editor. Stratis, the smaller island from the game, will be the stage for alpha gameplay.

Purchasing Arma III on Steam will give instant alpha access, with purchasing discounted for pre-purchasers prior to release. Getting access to the alpha will also give you some passes you can hand out to the ‘Alpha Lite’ for your friends. The Alpha Lite will be different in that it only includes single-player gameplay and no modding support, as well as starting one week later (March 14) and ending earlier (June 15). An interesting approach, and a good chance to see how the game will look on your system. Time to schmooze up to your friends?

To celebrate, Bohemia have sent us through just now four new screens from the latest build of this very excellent-looking game. Click to ‘embiggenate, naturally.

In news that is bound to warm the cockles of the PC gaming heart, Bohemia Interactive have revealed that upcoming ArmA III will be exclusive not only to PC, but to the Steam platform as well. Why? According to a post on their blog, they feel that limiting their release to Steam is the only way to make sure the game is available in 2013.

“Recent upgrades to Steamworks have made it an even more interesting option for us as developer and publisher,” writes BI’s Joris-Jan van ‘t Land. “These include Delta-patching and more direct administration of our games without a middle-man.”

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Bohemia Interactive has announced it has renamed the main island in the upcoming ArmA III. The new name, Atlis, is fictional, and was chosen to make it clear that this is not the real-world island of Lemnos.

Lemnos was the main source of inspiration for Atlis, and where two Bohemia Interactive employees were taking a holiday when they were arrested and detained for 129 days on suspicion of espionage. The previous name, Limnos, cuts a little too close for the team to feel comfortable with now, conjuring “undesired real-life connotations”.

Bohemia has been adamant that the pair weren’t even gathering reference material; it says it designed the 350km² Atlis map based on commercially and publicly available data about Lemnos, and chose the island after CEO Marek Spanel visited it on holiday several years ago.

ArmA III is due sometime in 2013 (Bohemia hopes to let us know precisely when later this month) and will also contain a second, much smaller island called Stratis.

Source: Press release

Great news overnight as the ArmA III developers held on charges of espionage in Greece have been granted bail and allowed to return home. Bail was posted at 5000 Euros each, but the pair are not free of charges yet and will have to return to face court at some point in the future — once the Greek justice system stops being on strike.

The news comes after Czech President Václav Klaus interceded on behalf of the pair, urging the Greek Prime Minister to release them as soon as possible. Bohemia Interactive cited the jailing as a large part in their decision to delay ArmA III until some time in 2013.

According to the Help Ivan and Martin website, the pair have been in jail for 128 days.

Source: Help Ivan & Martin

The hotly-anticipated Arma 3 will now be pushed back to an un-announced time in 2013, after developers Bohemia Interactive released a statement claiming that “unexpected circumstances” and “problems we simply couldn’t have imagined” have caused them to slip on work for the game.

“In what might be described as an eventful year, Bohemia Interactive has decided to postpone the release of Arma 3,” reads the statement. “The additional development time enables the project to reach its full potential, with the studio expecting to finalize their release plans in the new year. Recently, Joris-Jan van ‘t Land, a 10-year veteran of Bohemia Interactive, took over the role of Arma 3 Project Lead from Daniel Musil, who left the studio to pursue other opportunities.”

Says Joris-Jan van ‘t Land: “We’ve been in the process of implementing changes that will help us innovate as a studio under unexpected circumstances – facing problems we simply couldn’t have imagined”, referring to the detainment of two Bohemia Interactive employees in Greece. Both were arrested on suspicion of espionage while spending their holiday on Lemnos – an island that served as inspiration for the environment in Arma 3. They have since remained in jail pending legal proceedings. “We’re still trying to make sense of the situation and hope that our colleagues will be released soon. Although their plight has certainly affected us on a personal level, we continue working on the tasks identified as key to the release of Arma 3.”

“I hope this update provides some answers regarding the status of the project. We’re currently sorting the specifics so we can deliver a more complete announcement at the beginning of next year.”

Source: Blue’s News